CAPZA buys a majority stake in ITAL Express

CAPZA has joined forces with the management team at ITAL Express to buy the company as part of a majority LBO, the aim being to help the company shore up its growth.

ITAL Express was founded in 1975 and is among France’s leading suppliers of spare parts for trucks, trailers, LCVs and agricultural tractors. The company has over 25,000 SKUs covering the whole range of needs of repair and maintenance professionals. It caters particularly to those requiring original technical components of high quality. It boasts a staff of experienced employees and revenue of 36 million euros.

ITAL Express stands out from the rest of the competition thanks to the quality of its sourcing and logistics platform, which enable it to offer spare parts of excellent value for money and to secure a high level of product availability. Unlike the industry’s traditional firms, the company incorporates a substantial advisory component into its offering thanks to a team of technical-commercial experts who are able to remotely identify faulty parts on any brand and any model.

ITAL Express has been growing organically for the past 4 years, driven largely by the trucks and LCV businesses. It is now embarking upon a new phase of expansion geared towards making bolt-on acquisitions in France and Europe, developing new complementary product ranges, and ramping up its online selling capabilities.

“ITAL Express has ambitious plans to expand, primarily by making acquisitions in France as well as internationally. We are enthusiastic about the idea of being able to support Patrice Claverie and his team through this new phase of development”, says Benoit Choppin, Managing Partner at CAPZA.

“We are pleased to enter this new phase of our development with the CAPZA teams, who have known the company for several years. We wanted to partner with a Fund that would enable us to accelerate our external growth momentum and we believe we have found the right partner”, adds Patrice Claverie, Chairman of ITAL Express.